Sunday Law
Quotes
By Ellen G.
White
Testimonies for the Church Volume Seven, page 141-141.
Never did this message apply with greater force than it applies today. More and more the world is setting at nought the claims of God. Men have become bold in transgression. The wickedness of the inhabitants of the world has almost filled up the measure of their iniquity. This earth has almost reached the place where God will permit the destroyer to work his will upon it. The substitution of the laws of men for the law of God, the exaltation, by merely human authority, of Sunday in place of the Bible Sabbath, is the last act in the drama. When this substitution becomes universal, God will reveal Himself. He will arise in His majesty to shake terribly the earth. He will come out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the world for their iniquity, and the earth shall disclose her blood and shall no more cover her slain.
The great conflict that Satan created in the heavenly courts is soon, very soon, to be forever decided. Soon all the inhabitants of the earth will have taken sides, either for or against the government of heaven. Now, as never before, Satan is exercising his deceiving power to mislead and to destroy every unguarded soul. We are called upon to arouse the people to prepare for the great issues before them. We must give warning to those who are standing on the very brink of ruin. God's people are to put forth every power in combating Satan's falsehoods and pulling down his strongholds. To every human being in the wide world who will give heed, we are to make plain the principles at stake in the great controversy--principles upon which hangs the eternal destiny of the soul. To the people far and near we are to bring home the question: "Are you following the great apostate in disobedience to God's law, or are you following the Son of God, who declared, 'I have kept My Father's commandments'?"
This is the work before us; for this our publishing
institutions were established; it is this work that God expects at their
hands.
The Home Missionary, August 1, 1889
"We have been looking many years for a Sunday
law to be enacted in our land; and now that the movement is right upon
us, we ask, What are our people going to do in the matter? Do you realize
that the night will soon come, when no man can work? Have you that intensity
of zeal, that piety and devotion, which will enable you to stand when opposition
is brought upon you? . . . We should specially seek God for grace and power
to be given to his people now. God lives; and we do not believe that the
time has fully come when he would have our liberties restricted. The prophet
saw 'four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the
four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor
on the sea, nor on any tree.' Another angel ascending from the east, cried
to them, saying, 'Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till
we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.' This points
out the work we now have to do, which is to cry to God for the angels to
hold the four winds until missionaries shall be sent to all parts of the
world, and shall have proclaimed the warning against disobeying the law
of Jehovah."
Report of Progress, December 3, 1907
To defy the Sunday laws will but strengthen
in their persecution the religious zealots who are seeking to enforce them.
Give them no occasion to call you law-breakers. If they are left to rein
up men who fear neither God nor man, the reining up will soon lose its
novelty for them, and they will see that it is not consistent nor convenient
for them to be strict in regard to the observance of Sunday. Keep
right on with your work, with your Bibles in your hands, and the enemy
will see that he has worsted his own cause. One does not receive the mark
of the beast because he shows that he realizes the wisdom of keeping the
peace by refraining from work that gives offense, doing at the same time
a work of the highest importance.
Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, December 11, 1888
It will appear as though Satan is triumphant,
and that truth is overborne with falsehood and error; because the people
over whom God has spread his shield, and the country which has been an
asylum to the conscience-oppressed lovers of God and the defenders of his
truth, are placed in desperate jeopardy through its oppressive legislation.
Should our nation abjure the principles of Protestantism, to give countenance
and sanction to the Sunday law, they will in this act join hands with popery;
for it will be nothing else than giving life to the tyranny which has been
eagerly waiting and watching its opportunity to spring into active despotism.
And now, as this evil is on the point of realization, it is the business
of all believers in the Bible to arouse.
Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, December 18, 1888
A time is coming when the law of God is, in
a special sense, to be made void in our land. The rulers of our nation
will, by legislative enactments, enforce the Sunday law, and thus God's
people be brought into great peril. When our nation, in its legislative
councils, shall enact laws to bind the consciences of men in regard to
their religious privileges, enforcing Sunday observance, and bringing oppressive
power to bear against those who keep the seventh-day Sabbath, the law of
God will, to all intents and purposes, be made void in our land; and national
apostasy will be followed by national ruin. We see that those who are now
keeping the commandments of God need to bestir themselves, that they may
obtain the special help which God alone can give them. They should work
more earnestly to delay as long as possible the threatened calamity. If,
in our land of boasted freedom, a Protestant government should sacrifice
every principle which enters into its Constitution, and propagate papal
falsehood and delusion, well may be plead, "It is time for thee, Lord,
to work, for they have made void thy law." Some may think that because
it has been revealed in prophecy that our nation shall restrict the consciences
of men, it must surely come; and that if we make an effort to preserve
our liberty, we shall be acting the part of unfaithful servants, and thus
come under the condemnation of God.
Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, January
23, 1908
(In the Days of Queen Esther)
The same masterful spirit that plotted against
the faithful in ages past is still seeking to rid the earth of those who
fear God and obey his law. Satan will excite indignation against the humble
minority who conscientiously refuse to accept popular customs and traditions.
Men of position and reputation will join with the lawless and the vile
to take counsel against the people of God. Wealth, genius, education, will
combine to cover them with contempt. Persecuting rulers, ministers, and
church-members will conspire against them. With voice and pen, by boasts,
threats, and ridicule, they will seek to overthrow their faith. By false
representations and angry appeals, they will stir up the passions of the
people. Not having a "thus saith the Scriptures" to bring against the advocates
of the Bible Sabbath, they will resort to oppressive enactments to supply
the lack. To secure popularity and patronage, legislators will yield to
the demand for Sunday laws. Those who fear God can not accept an institution
that violates a precept of the decalogue. On this battle-field comes the
last great conflict of the controversy between truth and error. And we
are not left in doubt as to the issue. Now, as in the days of Esther and
Mordecai, the Lord will vindicate his truth and his people.
Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, September 30, 1909
In the night season I seemed to be enumerating
in my mind the evidences we have to substantiate the faith we hold. We
see that seducers are waxing worse and worse. We see the world working
to the point of establishing by law a false sabbath, and making it a test
for all. This question will soon be before us. God's Sabbath will be trampled
under foot, and a false sabbath will be exalted. In a Sunday law there
is possibility for great suffering to those who observe the seventh day.
The working out of Satan's plans will bring persecution to the people of
God. But the faithful servants of God need not fear the outcome of the
conflict. If they will follow the pattern set for them in the life of Christ,
if they will be true to the requirements of God, their reward will be eternal
life, a life that measures with the life of God.